A final goodbye from Joe Donlon

CHICAGO (NewsNation) — Joe Donlon, who’s been with NewsNation since it launched Sept. 1, 2020, said goodbye to his viewers and his team Friday.

Donlon began his time at NewsNation co-anchoring “NewsNation Prime,” but launched “The Donlon Report” on March 1, 2021. Friday, he said goodbye to the network. His message to viewers doubled as a thank you to his team.

Tonight’s American Snapshot is a personal thank you. It’s a picture of friendship, collaboration and camaraderie.

This is the group behind “The Donlon Report” — the gears that make this show go.

As you know, this is my last show here at NewsNation. I’ve decided to leave the network.

There is no way I could have done this without this group.

You may picture 20 or 30 people behind the scenes but this is pretty much it. A half-dozen or so of us put this hour together every day.

The other networks have those 20 to 30 people on each show, which makes what we do even more impressive.

But it’s a start-up — we’ll get there.

My goal from the beginning was for all of us to feel smarter at the end of the hour and I think we did that.

There’s so much anger and outrage. Social media has become toxic. I would urge you to support content that makes you smarter — not madder.

To me, the guests were always the stars. They provided the insight, the information, the interaction and the fun. I just asked the questions.

It has been an honor to host this show. I’ve learned a ton and it has made me a much better anchor.

Not many people get this opportunity — their own national show. I’ll always be grateful for this experience.

I thank you for watching and wish my friends here at NewsNation all the best.

Joe Donlon

Behind ‘The Donlon Report’

Donlon mentions the group behind “The Donlon Report” in his farewell, but did not know they (and some of his regular guests) put together a send off for him, too.

Here are some of their messages for Donlon:

Pinal County, Arizona Sheriff Mark Lamb:

“Just want to say congratulations on a great show. Thank you for allowing me to be part of it. You, sir, are a true journalist. As many times I’ve been on, I still don’t know what your political ideologies are or which party you belong to. But that’s how journalists should be. So thank you for being one of the good ones. A lot of journalists could learn from how you do your job. We’re gonna miss you. Congrats. Good luck. And God bless.”

Natalie Bubnis, booking producer:

“Hi, Joe. Taping this message makes me so sad. I wish you all the best and know that you’ll always be in my thoughts and I’m always wishing you the best and I’m always here for you and I will miss you and I’m so sorry I can’t give you a hug in person. But thank you for everything and being a great host and your patience and just playing along. We are going to miss you.”

Tony Katz, host of “Eat! Drink! Smoke!”:

“Tony Katz here, Joe, and I just want to wish you the best of luck with your future and everywhere you’re going next. I appreciate you having me on the show repeatedly. And, yeah, I do keep a battle axe with me because sometimes you get tough.”

Jason Racki, producer:

“Joe, we appreciate your integrity, your kindness, and, as a father myself, I appreciate how you always put your family first. There’s not a lot of that oftentimes in this business. I could see it in your work. I’m sure our viewers could as well. I hope there are many more Joe Donlon’s that I meet in this business. I wish you well.”

Emily Lambert, producer:

“Joe, there’s so much I want to say to you but as you once so famously said, ‘I can’t say that on TV.’ But just know I will miss you. I have loved learning from you. I’ve loved working with you. And you’ve really helped me feel like I have a family here in Chicago. So I’ll miss you. Thank you.”

Ryan Kerr, senior producer:

“Joe. I’ll never forget our first meeting on a Southwest Airlines flight. I stood up like a crazy person in the front row and said, ‘Are you Joe Donlon?’ You said yes. And I said, ‘You’re never going to believe this but I just took a job to be on your show. I start Thursday.’ If that’s not serendipity, I don’t know what it is. And as you’re walking down the aisle, you said, ‘Let’s let’s catch up at the baggage claim.’ And ever since then, I’ve been proud to be your friend and work with you every single day. Joe, I’ll miss you so much. Best of luck. I can’t wait to see you. See you soon.”

Justin Mannato, executive producer:

“Joe Donlon — one of the great guys, if not the great guy, in TV news. So sorry to see you go. My favorite thing that you did on this show happened in our first week where you wrote our open as a Dr. Seuss book. So in the immortal words of Dr. Seuss, ‘I’m not sad because it’s over. I’m happy that it happened.’ Take care Joe.”